My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 412 Zhang Tingyu Wants to Be Zhang Juzheng
Ortai's words made Zhang Tingyu turn around and look at him sharply.

The vast palace fell silent, with only the tolling of the bells.

Hongli glanced at the white smoke rising from the incense burner, and then said, "Ortai is right. If I can threaten the people I employ, how can I employ them? In that case, what will become of the imperial authority?"

"Do you think implementing a red and black register would be useful?"

Hongli suddenly asked the two of them.

Zhang Tingyu immediately replied, “Your Majesty is wise. Those who dare to do this are not doing it for profit but for power! Such people have never done evil in their hometowns; they are probably mostly charitable. Even if we were to use the red and black registers to deal with them, we could not fundamentally change their nature!”

Hongli nodded: "That's true."

"What do you think?"

Hongli looked at the two of them.

Zhang Tingyu remained silent.

Ortai also hesitated.

Hongli then let out a long sigh of relief: "You are the key ministers whom I intend to enshrine in the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the future. Don't you have any ideas?"

"Are you really going to let me play dumb and treat the fire at the royal garden as a mere accident?"

Hongli's words made Ortai grit his teeth, but he immediately bowed and said, "It's simple. Whoever has a great reputation in the world, we'll fabricate stories about them and kill them. Those in power always value reputation!"

Ortai's words sent a chill down Zhang Tingyu's spine.

But he was therefore compelled to reply, "Your Majesty, if we were to discuss who among the scholars of the world has the greatest reputation, it would naturally be your subject!"

Hongli chuckled after hearing this: "So, Hengchen, you burned down the bestowed garden yourself?"

Zhang Tingyu immediately looked up, his forehead beginning to sweat.

In response, Zhang Tingyu could only puff out his cheeks, take a deep breath, and say:

"I believe it would be better to directly survey the land in the two rivers, Fujian, Zhejiang and Hubei, and then take one-tenth of the land from the wealthy households and distribute it to the poor, or even relocate some of the wealthy households to the area outside the Great Wall."

"Firstly, this is a strategy that forces the enemy to defend, making it easier for the imperial court to intervene."

"Secondly, since the founding of our Great Qing Dynasty, the predicament of excessive annexation in the South has never been resolved, which has caused the court to remain subject to the control of local powerful households over grain, cotton and raw silk. Now is the perfect time to seek a fundamental solution. Even if it cannot be resolved in the short term, it can be used as a pretext to force them to compromise. After all, since our Great Qing Dynasty was able to successfully implement the shaving order and the sea ban and relocation order, it must be able to fundamentally solve the problem of annexation."

"Thirdly, the court must act with justification and make it reasonable, taking into account the right time, place, and people. At present, there are no major external threats, and the army is at ease. The land survey and redistribution is in line with the right time. The major cities and strategic locations in the south are in the hands of the court, which is a geographical advantage. The land survey and redistribution is in accordance with ancient rites and can win the support of the common people. Even the gentlemen who admire the past will not dare to point out its drawbacks, so it will naturally win the support of the people."

Zhang Tingyu had no choice but to take the initiative to propose a land survey and distribution.

After all, even the emperor asked him if he had burned down the imperial garden himself.

Zhang Tingyu, who was compiling the history of the Ming Dynasty, was naturally well aware of the significant impact of the land survey on the south. More importantly, he proposed redistributing land and relocating wealthy households, following the example of Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty. He was undoubtedly devising a plan to eradicate the roots of the large landowners in the south.

At the same time, Zhang Tingyu also suggested that his method was not unfeasible, because the Qing Dynasty was, after all, the Qing Dynasty, and there was nothing the emperor could not do if he wanted to.

It just means that many people might die.

of course!

Zhang Tingyu also mentioned that such matters might not have been completed before the large landowners in the south compromised.

They didn't have the courage to confront the Qing Dynasty head-on.

Emperor Qianlong did support the land survey and redistribution.

Especially the latter.

Of course, the land redistribution here only involved a small portion of the land belonging to large households. In the early Ming Dynasty and other early periods, some large households were relocated and their land was redistributed.

Because, given the current level of organization in the Qing Dynasty, it was not yet possible to distribute land among large landowners in the way that was done in later dynasties.

But doing so does have its advantages.

The reason is simple: this forces the large landowners at the top to appropriately transfer their accumulated wealth to the accumulation of other means of production, instead of just focusing on land and wanting to be landlords who only collect rent, thus hindering the development of the commodity economy.

The rapid development of the commodity economy in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty was also due to Zhu Yuanzhang's crackdown on many wealthy families from the Yuan Dynasty, which led to the bankruptcy of the large manor economy based on tenants and slaves, and the re-emergence of the employment system on a large scale.

In addition, according to the inherent phenomenon in this land, once people become wealthy, the first property they acquire is land, and only then do they buy houses.

Whether one prospers through passing the imperial examinations or through business.

As for buying and operating shops, that can only happen after the land and houses have been purchased.

Even when buying shops to expand their business, the profits would first be used to buy land. This is because the richest resource in this land has always been minerals, while gold, silver, copper, and iron are relatively scarce.

In this era, the best tool for controlling these people and mineral resources is land.

After all, most people in this era only know how to farm.

Unlike later generations, there were many people with other skills, such as programming.

The only internal problem that the Qing Dynasty has not yet solved is the unresolved issue of land annexation left over from the previous dynasty.

Despite the large number of people killed in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the issue of the government has always been something they have been avoiding.

Because the highest rulers of the Qing Dynasty were busy annexing land at the beginning of the country's founding, this actually exacerbated the land annexation problem.

But this problem cannot be left unresolved.

Land is the best tool for exploitation in this era, and naturally, it is also the best tool for controlling others.

Without this tool in the hands of the imperial court, central authority cannot be considered truly centralized, nor can it be considered a thorough reform, let alone industrialization.

Just like the Northern Song Dynasty, although it valued commerce, it failed to address land annexation at the beginning of its establishment. As a result, the emphasis on commerce actually made the large landowners who already monopolized most of the land even richer, thus exacerbating the gap between the rich and the poor.

Ordinary people have never been the main consumers; it has always been the high-ranking officials and wealthy people who have been the main consumers.

The entire commercial market has always focused on producing luxury handicrafts for the use of high-ranking officials and nobles, rather than mass-produced industrial goods.

Therefore, in the Northern Song Dynasty, places like Bianjing, where high-ranking officials and nobles gathered, became particularly prosperous commercially, but the common people would still rebel and be recruited by the government in order to get a bite to eat.

After Zhang Tingyu said that, Hongli looked at Ortai, who was staring at Zhang Tingyu in astonishment, and asked with a smile, "Are you impressed?"

Ortai quickly bowed his head: "What Minister Zhang proposed is indeed a good strategy."

"That's right! No wonder the Emperor Emeritus said that you, Hengchen, are worthy of being enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple!"

"Then you, Zhang Tingyu, will be appointed as the commander-in-chief to oversee this matter. As for those places, whoever you say should be replaced, I will replace them!"

Hongli agreed to this.

He would love to see the phenomenon of land consolidation alleviated in the future, so that land that can produce hard currencies such as grain, cotton and raw silk will not only be in the hands of large households, but also in the hands of ordinary people, thereby increasing tax revenue.

In any case, it is easier to collect taxes from ordinary people than from wealthy households.

Zhang Tingyu nodded in agreement: "Yes, sir!"

Then, Zhang Tingyu added, "Your Majesty, if Zhu Quan can be apprehended and brought to justice, we can use this as an opportunity to implement this policy."

"You're right."

"I have already ordered the Imperial Stud to arrest this man!"

Hongli nodded.

He was quite pleased that in this life, Zhang Tingyu was forced by him to truly become a leader in further reforms.

This means that if he were to actually place Zhang Tingyu in the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the future, no one would say that he, a minister who only wrote imperial edicts for three generations of emperors, was not qualified.

After all, by doing this, Zhang Tingyu was practically acting as Zhang Juzheng of the Qing Dynasty.

What he didn't expect was that Zhang Tingyu was indeed a strategist who knew what would be most beneficial for the future of the Qing Dynasty and even the future of the entire Chinese civilization.

Indeed, the elites of this era, especially the top elites, are not stupid or lacking in foresight; they simply won't advocate such a thing unless absolutely necessary.

The next day.

The Grand Council was ordered to issue an imperial edict to the Cabinet, stating that although the nationwide independent land survey was temporarily suspended, it was necessary to conduct a special land survey in the south where land annexation was too serious, and Zhang Tingyu was put in charge of this matter.

This caused an uproar in both the government and the public.

Zhu Quan was no longer able to know about this matter, as he had been taken away by the guards of the Sticky Rod Office shortly after sunset yesterday.

"Mr. Ziwa, please forgive me. My men did not report back on Zhu Quan's situation."

The woman with bound feet who came before Mr. Ziwa knelt down to report.

Mr. Ziwa sighed, "It doesn't matter anymore. This shows that Zhang Tongcheng did indeed betray Zhu Quan to the emperor. More importantly, he has become the advocate for the land survey in the south! He has completely sided with the new emperor."

"The new emperor must have offered something more important than Zhang Tongcheng's life to make Zhang Tongcheng so loyal!"

(End of this chapter)